BEIRUT (The Daily Star)- The families of Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison called for concerted efforts to pressure the authorities to grant them permission to visit their relatives following the weekend crackdown on the prisoners’ cells in the notorious Bloc B.
“The families have been trying for several days to visit their sons and be assured of their conditions following reports purporting that some had been injured, while certain news spoke of deaths among them,” the relatives said in a statement Wednesday.
“The last attempt (to visit) was today, Wednesday, but, again, the families were not allowed to meet their sons,” the statement said.
The families complained that some visitors had to disembark from cars far away from the prison and walk several hours to get to the building, but were still denied access.
In the statement, the families reiterated their demand to visit their sons, urged the media, as well as humanitarian and medical organizations, to check on the prisoners’ fate and conditions, and called for the resignation of Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk.
The families also called for a meeting in Tripoli’s al-Huda Mosque after sunset prayer “to discuss future measures to confront the authorities’ injustice and violations of the rights of prisoners and their relatives,” the statement said.
Security forces dealt a painful blow to Islamist prisoners in Roumieh by dismantling their “operation room” in the prison’s notorious Bloc B, and moving them to Bloc D which is more tightly controlled.
Police denied reports about casualties among the prisoners.
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